Sunday, December 30, 2007

DER WURGER VON SCHLOSS BLACKMOOR (The Strangler Of Blackmoor Castle) - Oskar Sala - "Mixtur-Trautonium Music" (1963)

Here's yet another odd juxtaposition of styles. A grisly German killer thriller of a film with an electronic soundtrack that would have been very comfortable on "Forbidden Planet", but some how it all works! Why is that? It's because the man behind the music in "The Strangler Of Blackmoor Castle" was the very intelligent composer/physicist Oskar Sala, a man who was the master of the Trautonium, the first electronic instrument. The Trautonium was invented by Friendrich Trautwein in 1930 but taken to another level by Sala, and re-dubbed the Mixtur-Trautonium. Oskar Sala worked his magic on a number of movies besides this one, including Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds." 
 
This movie is disturbing, but also quite funny, & the cool electronic sounds continue through the whole thing. Feel like something different? Put it on your list! Here's the fantastic music from the opening credits of The Strangler of Blackmoor Castle
 
Here's some amazing swingin' music from the two scenes at the "Old Scavenger Inn", and you will swear you hear a trumpet in there, and if you don't hear that, you will at least hear some very cool biting dialogue! 
 
 Original Trautonium 
 
Mixtur-Trautonium

1 comment:

Greg Goodsell said...

This has been called by some as a distaff relation of EYES WITHOUT FACE, with its moors, lonely castle and dread-seeped atmosphere.

Monster Music

Monster Music
AAARRGGHHH!!!! Ya'll Come On Back Now, Y'Hear??